The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-04-14
DEATH ON RATS.
How Woman Solved yexatiOus Problem In
Domestic Life.


From the New York Sun.
Mrs. Benedict's business is that of
rat-catcher, q new profession now
airly opened to women, and one which
Mrs Benedict at least has made lu-
crative. The business of rat extermi-
nation is not strictly new, and yet
Mrs. Benedict is fairly entitled to
rank as it's inventor. at least in an
important sense. She has raised it
to the dignity of q profession. 1t has
always been easy for housewives who
were troubled with rats to poison
them, but the problem has been to
induce them to die outside their
haunts. They have usually preferred
to retire to their inacces ssible retreats In
the walls as soon as they have felt the
ymptoms of arsenical poisoning, and
the low state OF sanitary science pre-
vailing in their communities is such
that poisoned rats are never properly
buried or incinerated by their asscci-
ates. The problem has been how to
kill the rats without bringing unpleas-
ant odors into the house. Mrs. 'Bene-
dict has found out how to induce rats
to die on the kitchen floor. Like many
inventors she is somewhat indebted to
accident. She was engaged, it appears,
in the domestic manufacture of plas-
ter casts of various kinds. One other
devices was to mix wheaton flour with
her pulverized plaster ofParis,so that
the gluten OF the flour might make the
paste less brittle. One evening she had
visitors who rang the door
bell just as she was sitting
the mixed plaster and flour for the
third time by way of mixing them in
timately, as the chemist says. She
had already set dish of water at
hand, intending t. make an expert
mental cast at once, and when the
loor bell rang she hastily removed her
apron and went to welcome her guests,
leaving her materials upon the kitchen
.able. Her guests stayed until bed
time, and when they bade her adieu,
Mrs. Benedict went to bed without re-
turning to the kitchen. What hap
pened in the night was this: A rat
made his way up the legs of the table
20 the top, where he was speedily
ioined by others. The dish of flour
and plaster was easily reached, and
the rats ate freely ami hastily of it, as
it is their custom to do. 1t was a
.ather dry supper, and water being
near, each rat turned to drink.
The water drunk first wet the
plaster in the rats stomachs, and
then, in technical phrase, ''set" it; that
is to say, the plaster thus made into
paste instantly grew hard in each
rats stomach and put an end to any
exercise OF that organ, The rats de-
,ided Mr.. Mallock's question, "Is lite
worth living?" in the negative without
quitting the table, The next morning
thirteen OF them lay dead in a circle
around the water dish. Mrs. Benedict,
when she entered the kitchen for the
purpose of making her fire, saw them
and acted-that is to say, she scream
ed and climbed upon a chair. From
that position she studied the scene,
and soon saw the cause. Like a wise
woman, she kept her secret and made
profit of it. She undertook, for a
consideration, to clear the premises
Of her neighbors of the pests, and sue
ceeded. It was not long before the
town was as free of this sort of ver-
min as if the pied piper OF Hamelin
had Travelled that way.